How we learn at university?

I and one of my close colleagues organized one workshop “Student Leadership” for Final year Physiotherapy students at University of Medical Technology (UMT), Yangon, Myanmar in July,2015 with the permission of the head of department. We truly appreciated to get the chance to communicate with students and conducted the 90 minutes workshop there. Our workshop was nicely done as we expected and it was an amazing moment for me to be in the classroom of my university again but this time not as a student. All demonstrators and staffs are so kind and helped us in every possible ways. We even talked with some of demonstrators with the intentions of gaining some insights of student’s current life at UMT that I experienced seven years ago.



After all, at the end of the day there was one thought in my mind and I was really uncomfortable with this, Student’s learning style at UMT. Then I ended up making brief analysis for that moment from some of the learning theories and principles perspectives.

UMT undergrad students receiving lectures as a major portion of their learning. Role of students is receiving information. Teaching is a teacher centered. Although demonstrators try to highlight the important points and help students acquire new knowledge by drawing attention to the information presented, it doesn’t seem students are encouraged to emphasize the mental processing of new knowledge and link with real life situation. There is no collaborative student’s activities in the classroom. Student’s couldn’t control their own learning and mostly rely on the predetermined right answer rather than debating, arguing and critical thinking based on evidence and reliable information.

According to the ‘Learning Theories’ the above mentioned teaching and learning styles based on the Behavioral Learning Theory and partially related with Cognitive Learning Theory. In Behavioral Learning Theory, knowledge is the fixed body of knowledge and teaching and learning are mostly done with direct instruction, emphasize on stimulus-response-outcome cycle (It’s like rote learning) and encourage to memorize rather critically think and therefore very limited to student abilities to explore and thinking outbox to solve the real life situation. In the Cognitive Learning Theory, learning involve transformation of information in the environment into knowledge that is stored in the mind. Learning occurs when new knowledge is acquired or existing knowledge is modified by experience. In this case student’s prior knowledge is important to build new knowledge and organize knowledge internally (mentally). If the school and classroom environment could provide the stimulus required to develop cognitive learning (activate accurate and sufficient prior knowledge in supportive environment), it would be suited for developing problem solving skills.

What if classroom environment doesn’t provide the opportunities to the students to learn effectively?

However, here I am not supposed to talk only about the classroom environment. So what about Student’s motivation to learn? An importance of motivation, in the context of learning, cannot be overstated as student’s motivation generates, directs, and sustains what they do to learn. There are two main concepts which are central for motivations, 1) the subjective value of a goal and 2) the expectations for successful attainment of that goal.

What will happened to the students who have goal and high expectation on success in the unsupported environment? Are they going to be defiant? What will happened to the students with low expectation on success in the unsupported environment, are they become hopeless?

Being at UMT for one day left me with new insights on our Learning styles and I would say It's definitely need to be upgraded.